He had to prepare for an awkward in-between hop, and then the ball spun away from him instead. He then had to go from lunging for the ball directly into his throwing motion to get off a hard, accurate throw while flat-footed. But yeah, pretty easy reaction play. Right.

The hop was head high……spin on the ball may have been more of a problem.

Kevin S. - Jul 29, 2014 at 11:54 AM

No, I know the hop was actually head high, but if you look at how he sets up, he’s expecting an in-betweener. As for your comment below, I don’t think he was trying to hot dog it, I think he recognized it was going to be an awkward ball, and charging it would have given him no ability to react to any kind of funky hop.

Adeiny Hechavarria would have charged the ball and short-hopped it. Andrellton has a tendency to lay back and hot dog what should be a routine play. If you want see what a real shortstop looks like “Hech” is the man.